Silly 'Deceptions' Unbelievably Fun

May 24, 1985|By Noel Holston, Sentinel Television Critic

If Arthur Laurents could rewrite Romeo and Juliet as a musical about warring New York City street gangs, Judith Michael shouldn't be judged too harshly for crossing The Prince and the Pauper with Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. In fact, except for the moralistic punishment of the heroine who doesn't appreciate her middle-class family life, Deceptions, Michael's update of the old switcheroo, is an enjoyable fairy tale.

Readers of the book will notice minor changes in the movie version NBC is showing Sunday and Monday nights at 9, but the basics remain the same.

Stephanie Richards and Sabrina Longworth are identical twins. Drab, unassertive ''Steph'' is mopishly married to a workaholic college professor, has two kids and lives in New Jersey. Impulsive ''Brini'' lives in London, rubs shoulders with the rich and royal and operates an art gallery financed by an ex-lover who, unknown to her, uses the business as a front for drug smuggling.

When Sabrina flies Stephanie to Venice so they can celebrate their birthday together, they confide how dissatisfied they are with their respective lives and decide to switch places for a week. ''You may be the first housewife in suburbia to make it over the wall,'' Sabrina says.

Vivacious Sabrina finds the emptiness of her jet-set lifestyle filled by the challenge of home and family; she rekindles Stephanie's husband's desires, stands by him in the midst of a school scandal and helps him win a lucrative promotion. Stephanie, meanwhile, realizes that she has been ''afraid to live.'' Whether she would have put this revelation to work in her own life or not, the viewer can only guess. She stumbles onto the criminal doings of Sabrina's benefactor, and she pays for her discovery -- and, implicitly, for her covetous fantasy and her affair with an Italian playboy named Carlo -- with her life.

So let that be a lesson to all daydreaming homemakers out there: Be glad you don't hang out with princesses and counts and phony art dealers, or have gold-trimmed bathrooms the size of raquetball courts. Car pools, PTA and cooking pot roast are more fulfilling, not to mention less hazzardous to your health.

Believe that and you'll believe Michael intended no irony when she called her book Deceptions.

It doesn't spoil Deceptions, by the way, to know that Steph gets snuffed. The murder, a bombing, opens the movie, and it's soon obvious which sister was the victim. From the funeral, the movie flashes back to retrace the sisters' scheme and concludes by detailing how Sabrina and Stephanie's husband, to whom Sabrina has revealed her identity, help Scotland Yard flush out the killers.

Ridiculous? Sure, but Deceptions bounds along at a much livelier pace than most four-hour telemovies, it has moments of wit and the location shooting in London and Venice (at carnival time, no less) adds enticing touches of elegance and color. Stefanie Powers reportedly tried to give each sister distinct attributes. The only differences I could see were their hairdos and the fact that Sabrina smiled more, but Powers is nice to look at in either guise, and the rest of the cast, including Barry Bostwick and Gina Lollabrigida, is attractive.

Dubious moral aside, this is what I'd call fun junk.

The local circuit: WFTV-Channel 9 this week picked up an award for its ''Kids Have Rights, Too'' public service announcements from the Boston- based Action for Children's Television. Trish Weaver produced the spots, which advised youngsters about their right to bodily privacy.